Gunnison
AvalancheCBAC Staff · Jan 6, 2025 · Gunnison
Weather
About 4" to 6" of settled storm snow from Saturday night's storm. There were isolated drifts right at ridgeline about a foot deep and the size of a small couch from northwest winds.
Snowpack
Near ridgeline above 11,000', snow depths in low angle terrain are about 150 cm and were quiet underfoot, even with aggressive stomping. We got a few collapses by traveling across slopes with thinner snow depths from wind erosion. In steeper terrain that avalanched during the Thanksgiving cycle, snow depths were around 110 cm or less, and the snowpack structure still looks terrible here, with large, weak facets below 2ft slabs, showing no signs of strengthening. Below treeline, the slab thickness (~18") and weak layer characteristics are also ideal for human triggering, with consistent collapses. On wind protected or wind eroded southerly aspects where we traveled, we found no avalanche concerns; the snowpack consists of a stack of several melt-freeze and rime crusts without any slab.
Avalanche
We remotely triggered one large persistent slab by stomping on a steep, northeast facing slope from ridgeline (while holding onto a tree for safety). The crown was about 2 feet deep. We also conducted a crown profile of the large birthday bowl avalanche around New Year's. The slab is 60cm thick over very weak 2-3 mm chained facets: no signs of rounding, just a garbage setup.